Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill receives royal assent

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill received royal assent on 25 June and is now an Act.

The measures in this Act will relieve the burden on businesses during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and allow them to focus all their efforts on continuing to operate.

 What happens next

Some of the measures in the Act will come into effect immediately. Other measures will come into effect once the secondary legislation comes into force.

The Act:

• introduces temporary easements for Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and filing requirements for public limited companies (PLCs)
• introduces new corporate restructuring tools to the insolvency regime to give companies the time they need to maximise their chance of survival
• temporarily suspends parts of insolvency law to support directors during this difficult time

Under the secondary legislation, companies will receive an automatic extension for:

• confirmation statements
• registrations of charges (mortgage)
• event-driven filings, such as a change to your company’s directors or people with significant control

Most companies will also be given more time to file their accounts.

 What you need to do

We’ve published guidance on the changes that come into effect today. This includes changes for PLCs with an accounts filing deadline between 26 March 2020 and 29 September 2020.

We’ll publish more guidance for private companies and other company types once the secondary legislation comes into force.